A New World
by Guile
Summary: Ranma/Slayers crossover; Ryouga is wandering around lost and runs across a strange symbol etched in an ancient ruin... please R&R!
1. The Arrival

Disclaimer: Neither Slayers nor Ranma are mine. If they were, I would not be writing this thing, I would most likely be somewhere nice, like Hawaii. If you wish to attempt and sue, feel free as I'm pretty sure you can't find me. So nyah!  
  
Key; Speech - "Text." Thought - Text.  
  
~ ~ ~  
  
Ryouga looked around. Hmm.... nope. No recognizable landmarks. He was lost. The world was on the straight and narrow. He noted stone, so it was possible he was underground, or in a house of some kind. Or trapped inside a mountain. That had happened before. Or in a collapsed mine. That had happened before too. He could feel himself getting depressed as he followed that memory, and so cut off that train of thought before it got any worse. At least he had come out with a new technique. Which Ranma managed to copy, tapping his incredible ego into power. Damn. A small part of his mind pointed out that at least it proved that Ranma's ego was bigger than his angst, which managed to cheer him up incrementally.  
  
On the plus side, now that he was depressed, he was letting off a dim green glow, which was helpful in trying to find his way around. Not that it'd do much good, except possibly preventing him from running into a wall. Contrary to popular belief, he didn't enjoy property distruction, it just sort of... happened around him. Another reminder that because he'd trained for so long and so hard, he was no longer really human. He recalled, without really wanting to, his date long ago with Akane. He had almost hurt her. Damn, but he had almost hurt her, and that above all else he had never wanted. The verdant green aura around him brightened considerably. It was now approaching the same brightness as broad daylight.  
  
As a sort of ward against gathering too much poisoned ki, he thought about his few victories over Ranma. They were indeed few and far between. The obstacle race. That fight to inherit the Saotome school. He would have won, though in the end they teamed up and beat some sense into Genma instead. The first two fights after learning the ShiShi Hokodan technique. The glow dimmed back down to torch level. An unbidden memory floated up, about how Ranma used Akane to play with his emotions in order to win the third match during that ShiShi Hokodan incident. The glow became overpowering.  
  
No choice now, Ryouga thought with a wry smile. He had to blow out a wall or he'd end up sending up a Perfect ShiShi Hokodan and completely vaporizing whatever it was he was lost in. He began to speak, his voice building to a crescendo as he chose a wall at random. "Shi... Shi.. HOKODAN!!" The wall exploded in a burst of rubble. Ryouga didn't flinch as he was pelted by debris. He calmly picked a tiny fragment of stone that had managed to pierce his arm out, and, for the first time in hours, he looked without rather than within.  
  
Hmm. Still a stone corridor, can't have gone very far, he thought. Unless, of course, he had gotten lost directly from one stone corridor to another half way across the world. Similar things had happened before. He remembered how he had somehow gotten off one ship and wandered into another headed for Singapore a while back.  
  
He was broken from his musings as he noted the chamber he was in. It was large, easily as big as the Tendo Dojo, with a very high domed ceiling. What really interested him, however, was the pattern on the floor. Ryouga recognized it as a pentagram. Our boy Ryouga isn't really dumb after all, just prone to anger and loneliness, coupled with a short attention span. As he watched, a small sphere of what looked like lavender shadows formed, roiling and mixing together as it floated a few feet off the ground.  
  
Ryouga got a bad feeling. Not quite the sort that meant he was about to be attacked, and not his radar for incoming mallets and giant spatulas. It didn't feel like his anticipation of a good, landscape-destroying fight with Ranma, either, but it was close to all three. He considered it some more as he watched the purple shadows seethe. Foreboding, he decided. That fit rather well. That 'Enrich Your Word Power' book he had picked up in what he was fairly sure was America was helping.  
  
He had decided that if the best he could usually do was fight Ranma to a draw, he might as well top the other boy in vocabulary and manners. Speaking of vocabulary, he decided to begin cursing Ranma for this latest development in an obscure Nordish dialect. Cursing Ranma always helped, especially if he could find an echo cave to do it in, even if he knew it wasn't really the pigtailed boy's fault. He had a feeling that within a few minutes, he'd either be beaten to a pulp by an enraged female, something wierd like a giant pig would show up out of nowhere and trample him, unleash an ancient evil upon the world, or get splashed with cold water.  
  
Paranoia doesn't just run in the Hibiki family, it gallops. The problem was that his paranoia was usually dead on. As he had heard somewhere before, "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you."  
  
He would later decide that it might have been better if he had just run away as fast as he could, breaking through walls if necessary, rather than stay and argue with himself. Because then the wierd thing happened. The lavender shadows began to expand.  
  
Ryouga took another step back. The shadows swirled and spun, seeming almost alive, reaching the edges of the pentagram drawn on the floor. Before he could take another step in any direction, something flashed bright white, blinding the bandana'd boy. Slowly, his vision cleared.  
  
Laying on the ground, the violet shadows evaporating, was a human form. Ryouga stared motionless, straining to see what it was. When the purple smoke finally vanished, his eyes widened and he stared. There in the exact center of the shape on the floor, was a girl. She looked to be sleeping, or unconscious, her fiery red hair spread out beneath her.  
  
He continued to stare. ~Pretty.~ Her skin was smooth and lightly freckled, her hair a captivating shade of auburn. Something clambered for attention for attention in Ryouga's mind. After a few more moments, he realized that he was staring at a naked female, and blood began to trickle out of his nose in a thin stream. Before he lost too much needed blood, his internal defenses kicked in and clubbed him unconscious.  
  
~ ~ ~  
  
Ryouga awoke sometime later. He looked about him in a sort of morning fuzziness. Hmm... now what have I been doing? he mused. Seems to be... rock of some sort. Am I underground? When his gaze locked on the nude figure still a foot or two in front of him, everything snapped back into place. His face turned a red that rivaled the unknown girl's hair, but he managed to stay conscious long enough to dig through his pack and toss his dust cloak on her.  
  
He shook his head wearily. This was going to be a VERY long day.  
  
~ ~ ~  
  
Lina slowly fuzzed back to consciousness. Hmm... lessee... where am I? She tried to open her eyes, but there seemed to be some kind of bright light out so she left them closed for now. Okay, let's catalogue the senses, shall we? There seemed to be movement of some kind, maybe she was on a boat? She could feel some sort of soft material around her. There was also something warm nearby. Mmm... sleepy... She snuggled a bit closer.  
  
Wait. Last she had remembered, she'd stumbled onto some kind of tomb. And tombs were made of stone. Stone was not warm. And there shouldn't be any bright light in an underground tomb. Therefore, she was not in the tomb. But... where...? She decided to try for sight again. She cracked her eyes and could make out a blurry form. As her eyes began to adjust to the brightness, she finally could see that it was a boy, about sixteen or seventeen, her age. She noted the black hair and bright green eyes, the light blush, and that he was also awake. He seemed to be awfully close, too, and looking over her shoulder.  
  
Lina's brain hung onto that statement. Awfully close. As in, his face perhaps half a foot from hers. Something... something is not right here. Her mind snapped awake in an instant, and she saw that he was carrying her, a hand beneath her higher back and the backs of her knees. She also noticed that she seemed to be naked except for a blanket of some kind. Only one choice, really.  
  
Ryouga's head snapped back and to the right as he received a swift punch to the jaw. He staggered back, dropping the girl he had been carrying in his surprise. Lina, meanwhile, shook her hand painfully. It was like she had just tried to bash Zelgadis or something. The guy's head felt harder than stone. He blinked. "What did you do that for?"  
  
She looked at him incredulously for a moment before shouting back, "Hello?! I'm naked in a strange place with you carrying me! YOU DIE ~NOW~, PERV- BOY!!!" Ryouga felt warning bells go off. He had just caught the attention of the most dangerous thing in the world; a pissed off female. He tried to remember if praying had ever helped anyone he knew, and if so, how he should go about it. He also noted the sparks coming off this one's clenched fists.  
  
He considered prostrating himself, but decided it would probably just make him a better target. He considered running, but decided that she could and would probably still catch him with those mallets all angry females seemed to have. He didn't have the experience Ranma did in getting away from these things. While thinking about his rival, he decided to send a few silent curses Ranma's way on general principles.  
  
"Ah, well..." he stumbled. "Y'see, there was... um... big place, lots of stone... big purple light... aheh... err, big flash, you... naked, uh... oh damn..." It won't work, it never works, even Akane, goddess though she is, never bothers with an explanation, he thought, panicked. He was right on target.  
  
"FIREBALL!!"  
  
~ ~ ~  
  
A/N: To be continued, hopefully. Just something that wouldn't leave me alone until I'd written about it. I'm still sort of new at this, so feel free to make suggestions. 


	2. Welcome to Nerima

Disclaimer: Neither Slayers nor Ranma are mine. If they were, I would not be writing this thing, I would most likely be somewhere nice, like Hawaii. If you wish to attempt and sue, feel free as I'm pretty sure you can't find me. So nyah!  
  
Key; Speech - "Text." Thought - Text.  
  
~ ~ ~  
  
Lina looked back over the full story. After she had let out her anger via a few fireballs, and worked her way through a lot of the boy's nervous stuttering, she had gotten a full account of what happened from his perspective and pieced that together with what she knew. First, she had gone searching for treasure through a forgotten crypt. Apparently, she must have activated one of the traps, and got transported somewhere else without her clothes or weapons, where he picked her up. She'd been unconscious for about a day. Unfortunately, there wasn't any sign of any underground tomb.  
  
In fact, her and the guy, who she'd found out was named Ryouga, were in the middle of a forest somewhere. "Now look," she began, as calmly as she could. "First off, I need some clothes. A cloak doesn't fit the needs of modesty very well. Next, we need to get back to that ruin so I can study that pattern. After that, maybe we can hit a restaraunt somewhere. Got anything to add?"  
  
"Er, well, let's see... You can borrow some of my clothes. But, y'see, I have this tiny problem with... directions..." He seemed to be blushing again just thinking about her lack of attire, and he looked everywhere but at her. Which is actually kind of flattering, Lina thought, considering the reaction I normally get in these kinds of situations, but this is not the time.  
  
Ryouga dug through his pack and before pulling out a pair of dark green pants and yellow shirt identical to his and tossed it to her, his face still very red. Both items were quite a bit too large for her, but both pants and shirt had drawstrings, and those odd laces on the bottoms of the pants worked well enough. She also got one of his bandanas to make up for the one she lost, though she didn't even bother to try and figure out why he seemed to have more than one on at a time.  
  
"So," she said expectantly, "Lead on, big guy."  
  
Ryoga nodded authoratively, and set off in a direction chosen completely at random, Lina following faithfully after. He felt that maybe he should have mentioned the whole 'Lost Boy' thing, but those fireballs of hers had really hurt, and he was rather hoping to avoid a repeat performance anytime soon. That, and after he helped Ukyo, he usually got fed. Maybe it would be the same with Lina?  
  
~ ~ ~  
  
Lina's eyebrow was twitching. Ryoga had learned to recognize this as a bad sign. He and Ranma, in one of the more dull times in Nerima (Read: Only one or two instances of kidnapping, fiancee plans, evil threats, Akane's escaped cooking, or high-powered martial artists with a grudge coming to town in a week.) had gotten together with Mousse and catalogued a general chart on how angry one of the female species was according to how many eyebrow twitches were recorded within a given time.  
  
Ryoga counted it off. Three eyebrow twitches in ten seconds. Angry, possibly jealous, but not at an explosive level yet. Recommendation: Find the source of the irritation and pound it into the ground, before great bodily harm is visited upon your body. Having had some experience with this, Ryoga opted on an easy conversation starter in a calm and moderate voice to begin with.  
  
"So, Lina, is anything bothering you right now? Perhaps I can help."  
  
The eyebrow twitching seemed to increase in frequency. Ryoga berated himself. Wrong thing to say, Ryoga, you blockhead. What are you, Ranma? It always seems to work with Akane. Okay, give her a moment. She'll either speak, attack, or remain silent. In Ryoga's experience, most women seemed to alternate between those three moods. At least the ones he was familiar with did.  
  
"Ryoga," she growled, "It has been a day. Are you sure we're going in the right direction?"  
  
Danger, danger. Threat to self increased. Options? Lie, tell the truth, or change the subject. Possibility of each? Lie: 20%, you're as bad as Ranma when uttering falsehoods. Truth: 10%, attempted before, mallet/spatula/bonbori almost instant. Change of subject: 50%, worth a shot.  
  
Ryoga searched about frantically for something else to talk about while trying to seem not to do so.  
  
"Not entirely. Hey, is that a restaraunt? Maybe we could stop for lunch."  
  
No sooner had the words left his mouth, than Lina had sped by in a cloud of dust. He blinked. The technique wasn't usually that effective.  
  
~ ~ ~  
  
Ryoga, one of the foremost martial artists in the world and tough enough to eat the youngest Tendo sister's cooking and come back for more, almost whimpered at the state of his finances. True, he had hung around Ranma and his old man for several years, and thus was familiar with the technique of speed-eating. However, he had never actually been a participant in the battle before, or had to foot the bill. His already high respect (Coupled with a healthy dose of wariness) for the middle Tendo sister increased several fold.  
  
Lina smiled widely and leaned back after everything that might have been food within several feet of the table had been demolished, including some parsely which Ryoga was pretty sure was there for decoration, and the sukiyaki he had ordered for himself. The potted plant nearby showed suspicious signs of being nibbled on during the feeding frenzy.  
  
Ryoga was currently wondering if Ranma had any sisters he had forgotten to mention.  
  
"Wow, that was excellent. Thanks, Ryoga." Ryoga acquired a light flush and a rather silly fanged grin. No one besides Akane and, more rarely, Ukyo, had ever thanked him before. Then, Lina's eyes got wide and cute enough to induce cavities at ten feet. The Lost Boy began to feel rather nervous. With Ukyo, who was really his only model to go by (though perhaps a girl who had given up her femininity for ten years, practiced a form of Okonomiyaki Martial Arts, and was blindly in love with an aquatransexual wasn't the best example), this only happened when she was in trouble or she wanted something.  
  
And Lina didn't seem to be in trouble.  
  
Ryoga did his best to firm up his spine. It didn't help much.  
  
"Ryoga," she began in a voice that was too cute for words. "Is that an ice cream parlor over there?"  
  
Ryoga, like Zelgadis before him, was realizing exactly how difficult it was to say 'no' to Lina where food was concerned, or much else, for that matter. Ryoga, however, was determined to remain firm. He drew upon a decade of training and discipline in an effort to weather the onslaught. Ranma-chan and Ukyo have done this to me before. I will not break this time, though. I will be strong. Besides, I'm not entirely sure my wallet can take another pounding like this one. But.. so cute... can't... resist...  
  
Lina was cute to begin with, though her tough and take-no-prisoners exterior sometimes hid the fact, and the 'SD' transformation multiplied that cuteness several times. Noticing that her companion was weakening, she upped the cuteness factor into chibi levels.  
  
Ryoga held on for another few seconds before his heart melted like a snowball in a blast furnace and he admitted defeat. "Sure Lina, let's go."  
  
~ ~ ~  
  
It had been another yen-draining hour before Lina was satisfied with desert and they could move on. Now, Ryoga looked around and groaned. He decided that it was his karma at work. Ryoga's karma, like the aforementioned Zelgadis, was a sort of Murphy's Law. If something could go wrong, it would. Either that, or Fate just wanted to look in on its favorite whipping boy, Ryoga. he thought to himself sourly.  
  
For, rather than the minute chance of arriving at the place where he had found the sorceress, he had, instead, found himself on the outskirts of, you guessed it, Tokyo.  
  
Lina watched the Lost Boy proceed to bash his head against a sign that said, 'Welcome to Nerima!' in amusement.  
  
~ ~ ~  
  
A/N: Hello again, all. A second installment. The third should be up reasonably quickly, or at least, more quickly than this one was from the first. Again, feel free to comment, or flame, or whatever. Ciao! 


End file.
